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Halcyon (album)/Achievements
Commercial performance Halcyon debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart and at number one on the UK Download Albums Chart, selling 33,425 copies in its first week, 10.3% less than the opening figure for Lights. The following week, it fell to number seven on sales of 11,082 copies. Following the Halcyon Days re-release in August 2013, the album jumped from number twenty-six to number three on sales of 15,883 units, achieving its highest chart placing since its debut. By September 2013, the album had sold 353,088 copies altogether in the UK. The album debuted at number eight on the Irish Albums Chart. The Halcyon Days reissue propelled the album to a new peak position of number seven on the Irish chart for the week ending 29 August 2013. In the United States, the album debuted at number nine on the Billboard 200 with 34,000 copies sold in its opening week. Elsewhere, it reached number three in New Zealand, number eight in Canada, number sixteen in Australia, number twenty-two in Germany, number twenty-three in Switzerland, number twenty-seven in Belgium and number eighty-five in France. On the 65th week of the UK charts, Halcyon successfully reached number one and is her second album to reach number one on the UK charts following Lights. The album too reached a new position of 1 in the Irish and Scottish charts and jumped from 18 to 14 in the Belgian (Flanders) charts. Charts Weekly charts Year-end charts Critical reception Halcyon received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an weighted average score of 69, based on 17 reviews. The Daily Telegraph s Neil McComick wrote that Goulding's voice is "really something special", concluding, "As luxuriously epic as Enya yet with the kind of dynamism of Florence + the Machine, Goulding's poetically opaque lyrics gain real dramatic weight. On a big, bold album, Goulding gives the expression 'singing like a bird' a whole new dimension." Melissa Maerz of Entertainment Weekly commented that the album has "harp solos, digitally tweaked cyborg harmonies, and at least one tribute to bodily fluids ('My Blood'). But they're anchored by giant, disco-ball hooks and the type of dance beats you might find on a NOW That's What I Call Music! comp." Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times remarked that on Halcyon, Goulding "marries thoughtful ruminations on young love to whooshing synth riffs and hard-edged machine beats; the album claims electronic dance music as the natural province of sensitive singer-songwriters." Michael Cragg of The Fly referred to the album as "a bold and confident step forward". AllMusic editor Matt Collar stated that Goulding "dresses up her powerful lark of a voice with a delicately laced veil of digital effects." He continued, "An ambitious work by an artist intent on developing her total sound, Halcyon finds Goulding poised at the edge of artistic and career possibilities." In a review for Rolling Stone, Will Hermes expressed, "If the songwriting doesn't quite measure up to U.K. art-pop divas like Kate Bush, the hooks always go to town, and her voice—Dolly Parton-dazzling in the upper register—mates gorgeously with electronics". PopMatters' Geoff Nelson concluded, "On Halcyon Goulding amplifies her music genealogy, both who she is and who she's been, in what is an often successful attempt to transition to iconic stardom ... The outcome is a bit flawed and a very loud version of her biggest and smallest self." USA Today s Jerry Shriver viewed that on Halcyon, Goulding "presents an edgier, more aggressive showcase for her swooping, stratosphere-piercing vibrato", while noting that "her tone, balanced between girlish and womanly, is appealing, as is her clear intent to be an Artist. One wishes, however, she'd frolic in the heather now and then for contrast." Despite calling the album a "well-crafted, stylish piece of work", Andy Gill of The Independent felt that "it's hard to love songs that try to hide." The Guardian s Rebecca Nicholson opined that the album "isn't nearly as wet as its predecessor", but added that "the main flaw of Halcyon is that it occasionally feels a bit too much—and that's something Goulding, perennially painted as the timid type, may not be so sad about." Hayley Avron of the NME critiqued, "Mainly, Halcyon sees Goulding's quirky-as-usual vocals lazily spliced into factory-standard chart dance. On 'Joy' and 'I Know You Care' her artistry is briefly allowed to breathe, away from the desperate bombast of the suffocating backing tracks." Halcyon received mixed reviews from Swedish music critics. At the website Kritiker, which assigns a normalised rating out of 5.0 to reviews from mainstream critics across Sweden, the album received an average score of 2.6, based on seven reviews. Peter Lindholm of Metro gave the album three out of five and compared it to Florence and the Machine and Adele, while noting that the album contains "bombastic electropop and orchestral ballads". Mattias Dahlström of Dagens Nyheter, rating the album two out of five, praised Goulding's vocals and observed "more complex arrangements", but dismissed the album's music as "anonymous radiopop". References Category:Halcyon